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Kenmare football gets impressive donation from Mayville State

Kenmare’s football program just became a whole lot better equipped and more sophisticated thanks to one phone call.

5/03/16 (Tue)

From MSU to KHS... Kenmare High School football players, Garrett Stroklund, left, and Paul Holter, stand atop 109 rubber floor mats that were donated to the school from Mayville State University. The mats are used in weight rooms and will complement numerous pieces of weight lifting equipment that MSU also donated.

By Marvin Baker

Kenmare’s football program just became a whole lot better equipped and more sophisticated thanks to one phone call.

Honkers head football coach Matt Hove received a phone call one day from Jeremiah Moen an assistant professor at Mayville State University.

Moen, who teaches health, phy-ed and recreation, had just one question for Hove.

“We’re getting rid of some weights and we wanted to know if you want them,” Hove said of Moen. “They gave it to us all free.”

In fact, in addition to various weight lifting equipment, MSU also donated 2,000 square feet of rubber flooring that is placed in weight rooms.

Hove guessed the value of the equipment and flooring to easily be five digits that if purchased new would cost approximately $37,000.

“The flooring alone is going to save us 8 to 12 grand,” Hove said. “And they gave it to us, all free.”

The equipment includes a squat rack and bench press among other items. Those items, along with existing weight lifting equipment the school has, will be set up in the old vo-ag room.

Vo-ag will be taking up residence in a brand new building just north of the high school, and after the shop is cleaned in early June, the football team will be moving in to their new digs.

The gift was given to Kenmare because Mayville’s head football coach John Haines, likes what he sees and hears about goings on in Kenmare, and wanted to help.

“Matt Hove’s passionate about football and we’re just trying to help out,” Haines said. “He’s trying to build a program up there and anytime we can help out young football players, we’ll do it.”

Hove played his college football at Mayville and was a teammate of Haines. Hove became an assistant coach at Mayville for a short time and moved elsewhere to start his career.

Hove coached a professional team in France for a time, and has spent most of his teaching at schools in California and Arizona.

“He’s a good guy and he’s doing some positive things,” Haines said. “I’ll tell you what, the high school in Kenmare made a very good hire. We are just pleased to get him back in North Dakota.”

According to Haines, the MSU football program was in the process of changing the location of its weight room on campus and had purchased new equipment to go with the new location.

Haines said there may be more equipment coming to the Honker football camp.

He said he would be open to providing Kenmare’s program with more equipment as MSU changes it out.

Much like Haines, Mayville State athletic director Mike Moore remembered Hove as a player and a coach who left a lasting impression.

“He’s one of our guys,” Moore said. “Matt played here and then was an assistant coach, so yeah, there’s a connection.”

But there were others who played football at Mayville who received the same news Hove did.

“We got the word out to a lot of graduates coaching and teaching all over the region,” Moore said. “We hated to just throw it away and are glad to give it to someone who can use it.”

With that said, Moore believes it may have been a stroke of luck that got Hove connected to the college football equipment.

He thinks that Moen contacted Hove at the right time, but added the college likes to help other alums out as well.

“I’m sure Matt did his research right away,” Moore said. “I’ll tell you what, that stuff’s not cheap. We just bought new equipment and it cost us $30,000.”

So the deal was done, but it was up to Hove to get the equipment back to Kenmare.

He enlisted several football players to help and it took two trips, but the equipment is currently being stored in the bus barn at the high school until the old vo-ag room is vacated.

When the 2016 Honker team gets wound up for late August, it will open the season knowing each player worked out using college football equipment.